I would love this answered. kleinbl00 recommended The Joke to me about 6 months ago, and I read it in January on a plane trip to Russia (coincidence), but the subjects grappled within were of a different kind than those in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The Joke is more absurdist, and asks what can life meaningfully strive towards in the face of an authoritative power that defies logic or rationality. Which, to be true, ULoB touches upon. But ULoB also dealt with so much more. I don't think The Joke was limited, but it just dealt with fewer subjects, and I don't mean that as a slight. John Updike said it best, "A... novel with the reach of greatness in it." I never felt the weight of absurdist Soviet policy like I did on that plane ride touching down in Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow early this year (and I slow whistled after learning this was his very first novel). Normally the absurdism of communist central planning comes in the form of satire. But The Joke was more... realistic? life-like? Though it dealt with something that almost demands satire -- an authoritative regime reacting out of political correctness -- I read it is as a serious (if funny in some parts) novel. I may be off base with that, I wonder how bl00 felt after reading it.

But The Unbearable Lightness of Being? That book changed my thinking process more than anything else I've read. It may be selfish, but I want more.